> What does the average person know about engines in cars? Materials their houses are made of? They don't know much about how those things work. They do know i

> What does the average person know about engines in cars? Materials their houses are made of? They don't know much about how those things work. They do know if they're losing functionality even if they don't know how they work. My observation is that people seem endlessly patient about losing functionality in computer adjacent devices-- far beyond what they would tolerate with other devices. I simply don't understand why this is the case. For virtually every consumer good there is some ability for independent repair. I think people would be up in arms if their car stopped working and the manufacturer said "Yeah, you just need to buy a new one". We have consumer protection laws in the US to prevent this very thing. With software connected to "smart" devices there are no significant protections. I don't think people even know to be up in arms about a device that doesn't work because it's "old" and the native app stops working or the Internet hosted servers went away. Worse, they just landfill the device and go buy the newest one. I assume it has something to do with the subsidized nature of smart phones and relatively short time people stick with a given phone. The "wow" factor of new technology probably dazzles people into forgetting about long-term usability too. Hopefully when the "throwaway" mentality of smart phones really starts to cost people (as more durable good type "smart" devices embrace this model) we'll see some public backlash.